Local Author Margaret Wrinkle Visits Five Points West Library, April 24

Wash
by Margaret Wrinkle

We’re thrilled to announce that Birmingham-born author Margaret Wrinkle will make a special appearance at the Five Points West Regional Branch Library on Wednesday, April 24th @ 10:30a.m. She will discuss her highly acclaimed novel Wash and the photographs which helped inspire it.

From the novel’s Facebook page: “Wash re-examines American slavery in ways that confound our contemporary assumptions about race, history and power as it carries the reader from the burgeoning South to West Africa and deep into the ancestral stories that reside in the soul.”

The acclaimed novel has been voted as one of Oprah’s 16 picks for March 2013. People Magazine recently chose Wash as a “People Pick of the Week” (Feb 25, 2013 v79 #8).

Wash explores slavery through the eyes of both captive and captor. Washington is the first member of his family to be born into slavery while James Richardson is a troubled Revolutionary War veteran and slaveholder who has spent his life fighting for wealth and status. When the pressures of westward expansion and debt threaten to destroy everything he’s built, Richardson sets Wash to work as a breeding sire. As Wash struggles to hold onto the West African spiritual legacy inherited from his shamanic mother, he meets a potent enslaved healer named Pallas. Their tender love unfolds against this turbulent backdrop while Pallas inspires Wash to forge a new understanding of his heritage and his place in it.

Margaret Wrinkle

Born in 1963 in Birmingham, AL, author Margaret Wrinkle is a writer, filmmaker, educator, and visual artist. She has spent much of her life exploring issues of race. Before she penned Wash, Wrinkle and Chris Lawson made the documentary broken\ground, examining contemporary race relations in Alabama. The film was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition and was a winner of the Council on Foundations’ Film and Video Festival in 1997.

The novel Wash is accompanied by a series of photographs taken by Wrinkle during her research at slavery-related sites throughout the South. Part of the series will be on view at the Five Points West library until mid-May and the rest of the series will be on view at the Coffee Shoppee in Five Points West from April 13 until mid-May.

Please join us on Wednesday April 24th @ 10:30 am at the Five Points West Branch (located at 4812 Avenue W) as we host a discussion of the book and photographs between Margaret Wrinkle – and you!

Where: Five Points West Regional Branch Library
Date: Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Phone: 205-226-4013

Book clubs and groups are welcome! Please call 226-4013 for further details – and remember to like us on Facebook!